Golly Ghee

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll see there is pattern of sharing recipes and musings on Indian cuisine. Dairy is essential to most Indian diets and is posited to be the reason for the reverence of the cow in India. The milk is used to make a variety of household necessities In their culture and the dried cow dung, used for fuel in fires, does not go to waste either in many Indian villages to this day.

Of the dairy products used on a daily basis in India, ghee stands out as being perhaps the most prominently used in the day to day household activities. It is often used as a fire fuel itself in religious butter lamp offerings in households and temples across the subcontinent. It is prescribed in ayurvedic medicine to be taken both internally and externally for a number of ailments. Lastly, it is used in so many dishes, whether they be sweet confections or spicy concoctions.

Go to any restaurant in india and there is a good chance ghee rice is on the menu. That is just rice with ghee mixed in. Sounds too simple to be a menu item but, in fact, this was my mother’s favorite dish when she visited my wife and I. Make any rice dish and scoop a spoonful of ghee on top and I guarantee it will elevate whatever dish you are serving alongside it.

When we recently settled here in the United States, ghee was one of the top grocery items to be sought out in our journey to discover ways to make food from my wife’s homeland. I finally found it available in a Martin’s grocery store in a section that catered to organic health foods. I was astonished at the price, as it would seem ghee here costs about $1 per ounce! Perhaps this was a supply and demand issue or the fact that such specialty items can fetch a pretty penny in the fashionable yoga health scene here in the States. Whatever the reason, it only took a couple purchases of this liquid gold before I began to investigate alternative options.

One quick look on Youtube and I found a plethora of instructional videos on how to make ghee in your own kitchen at home. I watched several to see if there were any variations in technique but soon discovered that it was a fairly cut and dry procedure, so I thought.

My first attempt was a disaster, I’ll admit. I thought I did all the right things. I went to the local mennonite grocer and got some genuine hand-rolled cow’s milk butter. I went home and excitedly followed each instruction in the video I had chosen to use from Youtube. I had bought such a quantity that we were sure not to run out of ghee anytime soon. The problem was, I was impatient in the process and ended up with several jars full of burnt brown butter. This failed attempt turned me off for a month or so to the idea of making my own ghee. I had succumbed to defeat and again began purchasing at a premium price.

I eventually got the nerve to give it another try and this time with tremendous success. The first thing I did was watch the amateur videos made by Indians settled abroad as opposed to the fancier videos I originally used as a reference. This clued me into something even more surprising. They do not use any fancy handmade butter at all! Nope, they just used unsalted butter that can be bought in sticks at any grocery store. This excited me because I can be a bit of a spendthrift and the thought of making such an expensive item at such a low cost was encouragement enough to try, and fail again if I must.

Luckily, this time I didn’t fail! In Fact, I still had some leftover store bought ghee and had a blind taste test with my wife, the expert. To my delight, she chose my ghee over the store bought ghee and said it was much better and more reminiscent of the ghee she had back home! Mission accomplished! I have been making ghee ever since.

The difference was, firstly, watching real Indians do it as opposed to some new age yoga guru with a hair bun in white cotton clothes. The second was to be patient and take my time. I have no doubt the process can be sped up by more capable hands but the slow way leaves less room for mistakes and the wait is worth it. Lastly, I got the ingenious idea from my mother to use gauze as “cheesecloth” since I didn’t exactly know where to find that item. Not all recipes mentioned the use of cheesecloth but it does help make the process simpler and knowing that gauze (bandages) can be used in its place makes it a simple item to find at any pharmacy.

How do you make ghee? I would suggest doing what I did and look for videos online that explain it in finer details but i will give you the general idea since there really isn’t much to it!

Take however much unsalted butter you wish to use (I started with four sticks) and put it in a pot on the stove. You must use UNSALTED butter, since salted butter will make the ghee too salty by the end. It is preferable to have a pot that has a thick bottom but if you go slowly enough that is not completely necessary. Start heating the pot at a very low temperature. until the butter eventually melts into liquid. Keep cooking the butter. You will eventually start to see it foam on top. Let that process continue while skimming the foam off the top gently. When the foam is skimmed off you will be able to see through the clarified butter to the bottom of the pot. There should be some solids that are forming at the bottom. This is where it varies depending on who you ask.

I suggest you already have an idea of what you want the end product to taste and smell like from experience. The longer you let it simmer, the more solids build up at the bottom. You definitely want to let this happen but to what extent is really up to you. The more it simmers the “nuttier” the smell becomes. This is where I made my mistake the first time but I was also boiling it at a higher temp than what I do now. Let your nose be your guide and you will at some point reach the scent and color that you are seeking. Simply take a jar or other sealable container that can withstand liquids at high temperatures (not plastic) and put a funnel in the top with some gauze or cheesecloth inside to filter out any unwanted particles. Pour your ghee from the pot carefully into the chosen container, close the lid and store in the fridge or even in the cabinet. Ghee made properly does not necessarily need to be refrigerated and will keep for several weeks without ever going rancid like butter would. Lastly, after it has solidified, put some of that sweet buttery nectar on your next dish and enjoy.

So, if you haven’t already, try some ghee. If you like it, learn to make it. I found that walmart brand unsalted butter made good enough ghee for my wife’s liking and the cost is at least a quarter of the store bought ghee, if not more.